Sunday, September 25, 2016

Jordanian regime responsibility and the assassination of Nahid Hattarin Amman--under the watchful eyes of the Jordanian mukhabarat

I will merely translate what I have written in Arabic on social media about the assassination of Nahid Hattar in Jordan under the title Jordanian Regime Responsibility and the Assassination of Nahid Hattar
There is nothing with which I don't disagree with Nahid Hattar over, and between he and me there was a political and ideological dispute which has only deepened with time.  But this assassination is not about one person.  The impudent Jordanian regime bears responsibility for this crime.  The regime protects with all that it got all the staff of the Israeli embassy in Amman and it protects--resident and visiting--Mossad agents in Jordan, but it never bothered to protect Nahid Hattar, especially that the regime and its official media led the campaign of Takfir and criminalization against Nahid Hattar.  As usual, there will emerge voices which will talk about ISISism in Arab society.  No, this repression and criminalization and tabooing is the problem of Arab regimes and the Iranian regime and the colonial West which--over many decades--have fought with the sword of the Islamic religion and "sacred" beliefs only when their interests and quackeries are threatened or criticized.  This is a moment for unity and solidarity between all the ranks of protesters against repression, killing, and terrorization in the name of religion and sacredness.  We live under regimes like the Saudi regime, the Qatari regime, the Emirati regime, and the Jordanian regime which sentence writers of poetry and tweets, which deviate from their extremist, reactionary, and strict interpretation of religion, to imprisonment and lashes.  There is a law in Jordan against "extending one's tongue" to the royal family--the historical supporter of Zionism.  And the Iranian regime spilled the blood and hanged communists and Baha'is in the name of a religious doctrine.  Communists have been killed in our lands at the hands of Sunni AND Shi`ite merchants of sectarianism--followers of Arab regimes and the Iranian regime.  And Western colonialism collected over the decades of the Cold War the ranks of kooks of religion in our countries to fight the Soviet Union--and thus they got rid of the secular and feminist (communist) regime in Afghanistan--the likes of which Afghanistan has not seen before.  Leftists and communists have been silent for too long about the murder of their comrades at the hands of Sunni AND Shi`ite merchants of religion and sectarianism, and it is high time that we raise the voice of our sacred beliefs which don't belong to "divine books".  We have our sacred beliefs just as you have your sacred beliefs.  And you--and the regimes of strict religion which sponsor you--insult the sacred beliefs of leftism, communism, feminism, and anarchism day and night, and there is no one to hold you accountable because you are protected by the repressive regimes which kill in the name of religion.  The burning of the Aqsa and the occupation of Palestine and the conquest by Western countries of our region did not offend your ultra-sensitive religious sensibilities and did not move you.  But a cartoon on Facebook offended your beliefs.  And what are those (religious) beliefs which are shaken by seeing a cartoon drawing on Facebook?  Western governments are redesigning your religion and are ordering you to delete Qur'anic verses and religious sermons which offend them and offend the Israeli enemy and you are silent and obedient.  But a drawing on Facebook ignited your religious rancor.  This is a moment to revolt against the intimidating hegemony of Sunni AND Shi`ite merchants of religion and sectarianism in our lands.  Those two sides (Sunnis and Shi`ites) disagree over everything but agree on tabooing, takfir, and criminalization in the name of religion.  What killed Nahid Hattar is his faith in the Jordanian Zionist regime, and its obedient judiciary.  And if the cartoon (below)--and which shows that the cartoonist clearly distinguished between the religion of ISIS and the religion of Islam--bothered you and raised your ire, maybe its reposting will remind you of the occupation of Palestine, and may move you, o folks of hypocrisy in our countries.

PS And Hattar, mind you, criticized me viciously on Facebook and I frequently, without naming him, criticized the Jordanian "royal left".